Tuesday, April 26, 2011

NOOK Developer(TM) Program Brings Popular, High-Quality Applications For Customers to Play, Learn, Connect and More on Award-Winning Device

Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE: BKS), the world's largest bookseller, recently opened its doors to developer innovation with its NOOK Developer program. Today, the company is pleased to deliver new and innovative reading experiences through NOOK Apps, a collection of high-quality applications launched for the company's award-winning NOOK Color Reader's Tablet. The addition of popular apps and other most requested tablet features to the newly updated NOOK Color make the best reading device on the market the best value tablet on the market at $249.

NOOK Apps offer NOOK Color customers a broad collection of popular applications from the world's best publishers and third-party developers, including Chronicle Books, Condé Nast, Concrete Software, Gameloft, Goodreads, Loud Crow Interactive, my6sense, The National Geographic Society, NAMCO, Rovio, Wordnik and more. NOOK Apps were introduced with the major NOOK Color software update launched today (available at no cost at www.nookcolor.com/update). The update delivers what customers want: shopping for popular apps, full-featured built-in email, an enhanced Web experience, as well as new ways for adults and children to enjoy rich content. NOOK Color v1.2 includes a platform upgrade to Android OS 2.2/Froyo, along with support for Adobe® AIR® and Adobe Flash® Player.

"We are thrilled to add to our robust eReading ecosystem a differentiated and unique portfolio of high-quality applications, which enrich and extend the reading experience that our customers know and love and keep the whole family entertained and engaged, connected and organized. With an update to the operating system, NOOK Apps, email, an enhanced Web experience and more new, great features and content to enjoy, we have made NOOK Color - already acclaimed as the best reading device on the market - truly the best value tablet on the market for $249," said Jamie Iannone, President of Digital Products at Barnes & Noble. "The response from the developer and content communities has been terrific, as many great companies are enthusiastic about bringing their strong brands, products and content to NOOK Color and the NOOK Bookstore, and taking advantage of the unique benefits of our open platform and merchandising opportunities."

NOOK Apps represent an exciting and unique opportunity for developers to reach a targeted and passionate audience of millions of Barnes & Noble customers. The company offers unmatched marketing and merchandising opportunities for developers through NOOK Color, BN.com's storefront, and unprecedented merchandising opportunities to drive discovery and demand in more than 1,300 Barnes & Noble retail and college bookstores.

Developers are invited to join and qualify to submit their applications by visiting www.nookdeveloper.com.

Thursday, April 21, 2011

Customers will be able to borrow Kindle books from over 11,000 local libraries to read on Kindle and free Kindle reading apps

Amazon today announced Kindle Library Lending, a new feature launching later this year that will allow Kindle customers to borrow Kindle books from over 11,000 libraries in the United States. Kindle Library Lending will be available for all generations of Kindle devices and free Kindle reading apps.

"We're excited that millions of Kindle customers will be able to borrow Kindle books from their local libraries," said Jay Marine, Director, Amazon Kindle. "Customers tell us they love Kindle for its Pearl e-ink display that is easy to read even in bright sunlight, up to a month of battery life, and Whispersync technology that synchronizes notes, highlights and last page read between their Kindle and free Kindle apps."

Customers will be able to check out a Kindle book from their local library and start reading on any Kindle device or free Kindle app for Android, iPad, iPod touch, iPhone, PC, Mac, BlackBerry, or Windows Phone. If a Kindle book is checked out again or that book is purchased from Amazon, all of a customer's annotations and bookmarks will be preserved.

"We're doing a little something extra here," Marine continued. "Normally, making margin notes in library books is a big no-no. But we're extending our Whispersync technology so that you can highlight and add margin notes to Kindle books you check out from your local library. Your notes will not show up when the next patron checks out the book. But if you check out the book again, or subsequently buy it, your notes will be there just as you left them, perfectly Whispersynced."

Monday, April 11, 2011

(Press release, Santa Barbara, CA) April 10, 2011. EBook authors work hard to get readers to know about their eBooks. Getting readers to read and enjoy their eBook and tell others who would also purchase their eBook is every authors dream. To break out of the pack and rise above the noise, your ebook needs attention. Readers have to read it, love it, and alert friends.

This is "word of mouth." Global eBook Awards come with a built-in publicity machine. To be successful, fiction has to get read. To be successful, nonfiction has to be brought to the attention of its category audience. Dan Poynter's Global eBook Awards are designed to help you achieve these goals. Global eBook Awards, www.globalebookawards.com is now accepting entries from eBook authors.

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

(Press Release) Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE: BKS), the world's largest bookseller, today announced that all subscribers to The New York Times through NOOK Newsstand(TM) will also enjoy access to the NYTimes.com website. Barnes & Noble customers can already enjoy their digital subscription to The New York Times, reading the daily e-edition content on NOOK Color(TM) Reader's Tablet, NOOK(TM) and NOOK Wi-Fi® eReaders. Coming soon, NOOK subscribers to The New York Times will also be able to access NYTimes.com, The Times's award-winning website, including timely news updates, opinion, blogs, video, interactive graphics and more, at no additional cost.

"We are excited to expand our long-standing relationship with The New York Times to provide NOOK customers with online access to even more great content any time," said Jonathan Shar, Vice President and General Manager of digital newsstand at Barnes & Noble. "Our customers already enjoy access to one of the leading NOOK Newspapers(TM) on their favorite NOOK device, and we believe they'll appreciate the easy access to all of the wonderful online content available at NYTimes.com at no extra cost."

The New York Times continues to be one of the bestselling NOOK Newspapers and, as with other digital periodicals, is available for a risk-free, 14 day free trial for all customers.

"The Times's digital subscription plan was designed to offer access to our high-quality journalism across a variety of platforms," said Yasmin Namini, senior vice president, marketing and circulation, and general manager, reader applications, The New York Times Media Group. "We are pleased be able to offer online access to NYTimes.com as part of the subscription experience for our loyal readers on NOOK devices."

Barnes & Noble customers with current subscriptions to The New York Times through NOOK Newsstand(TM) will be notified via email in the coming weeks with more information on how to enjoy free access to NYTimes.com.

The Los Angeles Times reports that the uncensored version "From Here to Eternity" is being published by Open Road Media. When the book was published in 1951, editors had pulled back some of the frank language and description in original draft.

Now, a new e-book edition of the novel will include the profanity and mentions of gay sex that were left out of the 1951 version. The uncensored "From Here to Eternity" is being published by Open Road Media and Jones' heirs, including daughter Kaylie Jones.

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In addition to the four-letter words, scenes that explicitly mention gay sex have been restored to the text. In one, Private Maggio (the character played in the film by Sinatra) mentions having oral sex with a man for money -- the kind of detail that must have been very difficult for an author to let go.